


The Best in the World

by misura



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-02
Updated: 2012-08-02
Packaged: 2017-11-11 06:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/475678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The truth is that he does, indeed, feel special, but it's because he's a brilliant forger, best in the world, likely as not, and </i>that<i>'s got nothing to do with Arthur (except that it does).</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best in the World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [valderys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/valderys/gifts).



Forging is 95% pure talent, 4% research and 1% _je ne sais quoi_.

Eames has got the talent down pat, and Arthur - stick in the mud that he is, actually makes one hell of a researcher, so that's 99% perfection, darling, on every job they work together.

And given that Eames sure hasn't got any idea why the words 'Arthur' and 'great sex' ought to go in a sentence together (which they do, surprisingly, and more than once, too), he figures they've got that elusive last one percent covered, too.

Probably should have known it wouldn't last.

 

The thing is, Eames thinks, the thing is that Arthur really _is_ a great researcher. He's got a drive for it - not a curious bone in his body, that's not what it's about, but Arthur loves to be pointed in a direction and start digging until he knows _everything_. The dirty little secrets, the skeletons in the closet, but also the good stuff, the fun stuff, those small things and mannerisms that Eames needs to pull off a good forgery, even if, sure, it's unlikely anybody's going to ask about favorite colors or foods or allergies. It's not the getting arrested for DUI that makes a person who they are; it's the little things.

After three months and five jobs and an amount of sex that's little short of miraculous (Eames doesn't often form this sort of attachments; he's a traveling man, a wanderer and professionally paranoid), Eames reckons he's gotten to know Arthur fairly well.

It's not intentional or anything; it just happens. You work together, you sleep together, you dream together - things start to stick. Things start to get _familiar_.

Things stop being new.

Eames hasn't got a problem with it, really; the sex is great, and if it keeps getting better because they keep figuring out what the other one likes, well, then that's only for the better, isn't it?

Arthur brings him breakfast in bed, with coffee just the way Eames likes it, and Eames grins and says something stupid about how well Arthur knows him by now.

He doesn't see Arthur again for close to a year after that.

 

"Didn't think you'd be the type to get cold feet all of a sudden, darling," Eames says, and he tries very hard not to sound like Arthur's left him at the altar or something. They had some fun, good times; they never made any promises, and apparently, Arthur got bored.

A less vengeful man than Eames might intend to make Arthur pay for that.

"I'm not," Arthur says, neither coldly, like Eames is turning nothing into something, nor hotly, like the accusation has hurt him, just a little bit. "Did you want something?"

Eames almost says 'yes' simply for the hell of it. There's been a guy here and a guy there, and one of them was wearing a very nice suit, and possibly, Eames should have left well enough alone, because it's not as if he couldn't have guessed that it's not the suits that make Arthur who he is.

"I just wondered if you might have heard of any jobs lately. Travel's expensive." Any job Arthur knows about will likely involve him on the team as well. He's one of the best there is, after all, and handy enough when it comes to a fight, too. (Eames has forged him once or twice, when things got hot. It seemed a bad idea at the time.)

Arthur considers. If he never wants to have sex with Eames again, Eames figures he can live with that. (He already does, doesn't he?) On the other hand, if Arthur never wants to work with Eames again, _that_ might be a problem. "I may know of something, yes."

"Splendid."

 

They don't keep things friendly, because that's never been how it works between them.

They do keep things platonic, mostly.

"Quick, kiss me," Eames says, because nobody's watching them except for rather more of the projections than he's quite comfortable with.

"Why?" Arthur asks. Eames thinks he'd go along, let it happen, permit Eames to do it.

Eames thinks Arthur is a bastard. "I thought it might distract them."

"Don't think it would have worked," Arthur says.

"Thank you for your unadventurous lack of cooperation in finding out for sure."

 

Arthur's completed his research on Eames, and now he's moved on. It's not a case of there being somebody else, really; from what Eames has seen of Arthur (which is nearly as much as Arthur has seen of Eames, except that in Eames's case, he didn't look at the sum of his knowledge and thought it was enough), Eames is the exception to Arthur's general rule about relationships.

He supposes that perhaps he should feel special.

The truth is that he does, indeed, feel special, but it's because he's a brilliant forger, best in the world, likely as not, and _that_ 's got nothing to do with Arthur (except that it does).

 

They start working together again more often after that one time.

99% is still pretty good, and Eames enjoys (dis)liking Arthur's company for all the wrong and right reasons. (Human relationships, like human feelings, are often complicated, messy, not simple.)

Arthur offers sex, once, sounding more like he's testing the waters than like he's fantasizing about Eames three times a day or so (it varies, depending on the job, the weather, the state of Arthur's suit) so Eames turns him down flat and then half-regrets it for the rest of the week.

Eames doesn't want Arthur to ask for sex like it's a simple yes-or-no-or-rain-check question.

He wants Arthur to ask for it like he _wants_ it.

 

On the other hand, Eames figures that maybe if he just says 'yes' with enough conviction, Arthur will get the hint and either back off post-haste or figure out some things for himself, like why he'd be considering having sex with someone he already knows so very well.

 

Arthur doesn't back off post-haste.

 

Their second first time feels a lot like their first last time, so Eames half (all right, _fully_ ) expects Arthur to run for the hills again after breakfast, but for some reason, it doesn't happen.

It lasts for months until Eames realizes it's been a year, and then it's still lasting, even if they drift apart sometimes, get sick of each other's company for a while. It's always with the understanding they'll reconnect at some point, get together again.

Eames figures that, for the rest of his career, he just might be a 100% brilliant forger (the best in the world). And a few other things besides.


End file.
